Sailor Sol: My Life as a Celestial Body
by MonsterRideOp
Summary: The life of the 10th, and only American, Sailor Senshi, as written in her own words. My first story, please be gentle with the criticism.
1. Forward-Introduction

**My Life as a Celestial Body**

An Autobiography by Akio

With Forward Written by Kurisu

Hello to all of my readers. When I first heard of Akio's intention of writting an autobiography about her early life I was very excited and could not wait until it was ready. Of course this excitment was nothing compared to when she asked me to write the forward to said book. I do hope that I will live up to her very high expectations and not let her down in this endeavour. But enough about me, this should be about Akio.

When I first met her I wa24t-9gasfbl;an . . .

**Transmission Error**

OK, enough with the fake forward, although I do like the authors name, here's the real intro. This fanfic is going to be something a bit different from most. While I have read quite a few fanfics I have yet to come across one written in first person. Why? Probably because our English teachers all said that it shouldn't be done in fiction. Well I never really did well in English class so I'm going to do it anyways. Well most of it. Even though this is written as an autobiography some background is necessary that happened before the main character is born. That part will not be first person.

As this is my very first story I wanted to do something different. So using an idea from a heat induced daydream/halucination, which will end up as a scene, I started pulling together an outline based around a base idea of the dream: What if there were a Senshi from America?

So here we are. The story will be based mostly around Sailor Moon, the anime as I haven't read the most recent, and I so far good, translation of the manga yet, with some locations/characters from Ranma 1/2. Because the main story idea is my brain child, the majority of it will be based around original characters in, what may be to you, familiar locations. I hope to do my characters justice but we'll all see how that goes.

Although this may seem like non-fanfiction material it is. It's just that the fanfic portions come a bit later than most expect.

And now before the first chapter begins there is the required Disclamer, of which this is the super long version, which will not be repeated in each chapter:

Sailor Moon is the property of Naoko Takeuchi. Toei holds all the rights for the anime while Kodansha published the manga in Japan and holds the license for a US version.

Ranma 1/2 is the property of Rumiko Takahashi. Shogakukan published the manga in Japan and VIZ Media licensed it for publication in the US. Kitty Films created the anime and VIZ Media licensed it for release in the US.

This entire story is a derivative work using characters, situations, and locations created in each of the above properties. In other words I don't own either of them in whole or in part. Go find someone else to sue.

However the original characters, introduced in the beginning of this story, are mine as is their introductory stories. I don't mind terribly if you use them but please let me know so that I can tell how well liked I am.

Lastly, please review. It helps me to find out what big mistakes I made and how well, or poorly, I have done, or how much you like or hate me.

Now on with the show.


	2. Prologue

Prologue - The beginning of the beginning

Hello everyone, this is Akio, or as most of you know me, Sailor Sol! As this is supposed to be an autobiography of my early years, ie that which occurred before the freeze, I should probably start at the beginning.

While most would start these things in there early childhood, and I will get there, I thought it might be interesting for you to know about the "source" of my powers. Not the true source of course, that would be Sol, but more how I ended up as a Sailor Senshi instead of just your everyday human being.

My mother told me some of this at an early birthday and expounded on it later on when asked. Those things that my parents wouldn't know come from Sol herself.

It all began in the late 1970s . . .

* * *

Late September, 1978

A large, metallic asteroid is moving through space within Mercuries orbit heading straight for the sun. It was this asteroids poor luck to be knocked out of its orbit in the asteroid belt by a passing comet causing it to head towards our nearest star. However this asteroid was about to get a lucky break. A few moments after the asteroid breaks up due to the sun's gravity a solar flare begins heading straight for the cluster of rocks that is left of the original. As the solar flare gets closer and closer most of the pieces are melted and vaporized into their base elements. However one small piece, about the size of a cinder block, suddenly begins to glow. As this piece is overtaken by the flare it melts, but does not vaporize. Instead it reforms after the flare passes, into a softball sized sphere that glows a bright red. Because of the flare the surviving piece of the asteroid is thrown onto a new course, flung towards a future meeting with the Earth.

* * *

Janurary 13, 1979

After many months of flying through space, at what are much faster than normal speeds for a tiny space rock, the last bit of the asteroid finally enters Earth's atmosphere somewhere over the south-eastern Atlantic ocean. It heads in a north westerly direction over the Atlantic losing no mass in the process. Finally it touches down in a not-so-violent nature in a small town northwest of Charleston South Carolina called Summerville.

It is an average summer day in Summerville South Carolina, in other words hot and humid, when Susan hears a loud THUMP from the front yard at the same time that a small rumble passes through the frame of her house. Not knowing what caused the noise and vibration, she stops cleaning and heads outside into the oppressive heat. She sees a small smoking crater in the short, unpaved driveway right where her husband would park the car.

"Glad Roland isn't here, or else the car would have a new sunroof," she says as she moves towards the hole. Bending down, Susan looks into the hole to discover a glowing piece of rock embedded into the ground.

As she is about to remove the meteorite from its hole, her neighbor, Jill, comes out of her half of the duplex.

"Hey Sue," says Jill, "Whatcha' got there?"

"Don't know. But it sure did make a heck of a noise."

"Well, you gonna pull it out?"

"Yep. Just gimme a minute."

"Now, now, don't hurt your self. You're pregnant so I'll get it for you."

"I'm still in my first trimester Jill. I can get it without a problem."

"Oh no you don't. Roland told me to keep an eye out for y'all. So I'll pull it out."

Jill moves around Susan to go and pull the meteorite from its resting place. As she bends down and reaches for the rock she is suddenly flung back by what seems to be a bright light.

"Oh no," exclaims Susan. "Are you OK Jill?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit shaken up. Guess the rock doesn't like me."

Jill picks herself up and moves back to Susan's side. "Looks like we'll have to wait for Roland or John to get home so one of them can pull it out."

"Nonsense," says Susan. "I'll get it."

"But what about your pregnancy?"

"It's not so far along that I can't do most of the housework. This won't be any harder than checking behind the stove for roaches."

"But what if you get pushed back like I did?"

"I'll just have to take that chance. But just in case why don't you get in position to catch me if I get tossed back."

"OK," says Jill as she moves behind Susan.

Susan then moves closer to the small hole to pick up the meteorite. As she bends down a reddish glow begins and slowly gets brighter.

"Oh, no," whispers Jill. "Look out Sue, that's the same light that threw me back!"

Just as the light reaches full intensity, it suddenly goes very dim before it encompasses Susan. Looking back at her friend Susan just shrugs and pulls the meteorite out of the hole.

"Look Jill, its fine," says Susan as she holds up the small spherical rock in her hand. "Hmm. It's not nearly as heavy as I thought it would be. I wonder why it's glowing?"

As Susan looks at the meteorite, the glow quickly dissipates and only a reddish brown rock is left.

"Do you think it's safe to hold it like that?" asks Jill as she comes up next to Susan to look at the meteorite.

"It should be fine. It looks kinda weird, doesn't it?"

"Yea. Look at the surface, it's smooth, like a beach ball. You would think it would be more roughed up being in the ground like that."

"Well, I'm gonna go back inside where it's at least cooler. Thank the Lord for AC, right Jill?"

"Definitely. I'll drop by later with John after dinner and the four of us can discuss what to do with this rock. That OK with you?"

"Sure. Stop by after seven. Me and Roland will be done with dinner by then."

"See you then."

Jill and Susan then go back into their own sides of the small duplex, both wondering where the rock came from. Within the hour, Susan's husband Roland gets home, parking right over the small hole in the driveway without even noticing it.

Susan informs him of the rock and that their neighbors will be over after dinner to discuss it.

After some discussion it is decided that Roland and Susan can keep the strange rock, it did fall on their driveway after all, and they decide to give it to their unborn child at a later date.

Unbeknownst to any of them Susan's still unborn child, barely a fetus, had been giving off a dim red glow since she first touched the meteorite.

***************************  
Sailor Sol - Prologue  
by: MonsterRideOp  
June 13, 2013  
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	3. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Life in Small Town Michigan

So, here is where my life's story begins. I was born in late July of 1979. No you don't get an exact date. Just the fact that you know that I'm that old is good enough, and more than I wanted to let you know. Pushy editors.

When I was born my parents, well mostly my mother I'm told, named my Samson. A nice powerful name, from a very powerful biblical character, but not one that I liked much. So for the most part I just went by Sam. At the time it was just a name. But looking back on it I see that my patron had a bit more to do in my early years than I ever expected. Can anyone guess what Samson means? Well here's a little etymology lesson. Samson, from the ancient Hebrew Shimshon, means "Sun" or "Man of the Sun." Real sense of humor Sol has. Yep. Very funny.

Anyways, I was born and raised in good 'ol South Carolina. At least for the firt 6 years or so. While my family did not grow beyond me, Woot! Woot! Only Child!, my dad felt that he couldn't "properly" provide for us.

Although as a really little kid I could care less if I had the latest stuff or not, I was apparently quite happy just watching Sesame Street at that point, as I grew I was slowly introduced to the wonders of TV advertising. Apparently the best way to keep kids quite for part of pre-school involved a TV. As such I wanted more toys and games, among other things. Now don't misunderstand here. My parents did NOT spoil me. I didn't get everything I wanted all the time, money not withstanding of course. As it was I got a few things each Christmas and one nice gift on my birthday. This did leave me as unhappy as the other kids that I hung out with, well as much as I did hang out in pre-school through 1st grade, did not have the latest and greatest either. Crap, I'm ranting. Continuing on...

So in effect we didn't have a lot. A TV to watch shows, some toys to keep me occupied and I was pretty happy. However my parents seemed to feel otherwise. Soon after I finished the 1st grade we all got in the family car, a subcompact Japanese job, and made the drive to Michigan. The drive wasn't that bad, mostly due to me sleeping for the majority of it. Eventually we arrived in the small town of Romeo Michigan.

When we moved we had very little that came with us, at least until the moving truck caught up. Moving from, what seemed to me, one side of the country to the other did cause us to leave some stuff behind. However it was good that we didn't bring much with us as we wouldn't have anywhere to put it all. Why? Because when we moved to Romeo we started out in my uncle's house. My parents and I took the top floor, two bedrooms and a bathroom, and we shared the remainder of the house with my uncle and his family. Although there wasn't much space things worked out well. We got a storage unit to place the extra stuff in and it was especially nice after my uncle installed a pool in the backyard.

And so my childhood continued on. I went to school, where it seemed I couldn't do anything right, played with the neighborhood children and made some friends, and did things most any young boy would do. However everything was about to change.

It began during my 12th birthday. I had my two best friends over, Steve and Tony, and we were doing whatever we could to stave off boredom before dinner was ready. My mother had made my favorite dish, a big lasagna and garlic bread which turned out really good, as always, and after a while we finished up dinner and were ready for cake. It was a beaut, a two layer strawberry cake with buttercreme icing, my mom made the only butter-creme icing worth having made of nothing but butter, powdered sugar, and some vanilla, yum yum. The cake had decorations based around my favorite cartoon character at the time, Donatello from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Don't judge me, I was a 12 year old boy, my options were limited.

Well we all had some cake, did I mention that it was delicious, cause it was, and we got to the best part of the night, the presents. Steve and Tony had both brought some TMNT related items, including a Donatello eye mask which was basically just a strip off purple cloth with eye holes, yea for marketing, and my parents got me some science related stuff including my very first telescope, which was just powerful enough to make out Jupiter's three largest moons on a clear night. Well it was soon time for my friends to go home and for me to go to bed, but my birthday wasn't over yet. My parents had one more thing to give me.

They sat me down in the living room and my mother began to tell me about the meteorite that had crashed through the car while she was still pregnant with me. During this time my father opened a drawer and brought out said space rock, which seemed to be glowing ever so slightly although my parents didn't seem to notice, and handed it to me. The moment I touched it the glow became brighter by just a bit and I felt something inside of myself change. There were no words this time from a mysterious source and I didn't feel all-powerful but something had changed. Not knowing what to do about it I thanked my parents, went through my nightly routine, and went to sleep with the meteorite sitting on my bed side table.

Although I did not know it at the time the meteorite had begun to change me a little bit each day. I became more energetic, not that you could tell, and started doing more sport related things including taking up some martial arts. My senses were slowly become more fine tuned, which basically meant no glasses required and I could smell stuff better. However the biggest change over time was a buildup of a sort of extreme temperature resistance. It seemed that I could deal with things that were both colder and hotter than most could. It wasn't fool proof, I could still get burned and anything, or any day, below 0 deg F was still really cold, but I could stand the hot summer days and most of the cold winter days without any problems and with less clothing during winter than most.

Anyways back to the story. So I had gotten a meteorite for my 12th birthday. Of course I had to show everyone that I could because it was so cool. A meteorite and it was mine. My friends and school mates were amazed by it and they all wanted to know where it came from. Even my teachers seemed awed by it. But eventually the amazement wore away and life went back to normal. As I went on through school things changed very little in that small town. Just before I entered high school a new building was built which meant that I didn't have to go through my later teenage years in a dilapidated structure but beyond that very little changed. Our little town never even got a stop light downtown or a McDonalds until well after I started college. Although the town didn't change my families situation did. My uncle eventually moved out and sold us the house that we had started to call home during my freshman year of college. My dad moved up in the world by getting a job with a bigger police department where he eventually made captain before retiring. As I stated earlier I started taking up martial arts and eventually achieved black belts in Karate, Aikido, and Bo Jutsu.

Life continued on in this manner for many years. I continued to maintain my friendships, and made new ones, but never found a steady girlfriend. This was never a big problem for me as I had many other things to do with my time including some sports, swimming and baseball, and an early computer club. But looking back on it I can see how it would have been nice to have someone during those formative years. Well eventually I graduated from Romeo High School, home of the Bulldogs, GO DOGS!, near the top of my class before my 18th birthday.

Of course my 18th birthday would bring much bigger changes than I thought possible. But that's for the next chapter.

***************************  
Sailor Sol - Chapter 1  
by: MonsterRideOp  
June 13, 2013  
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	4. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Amazing Cosmic Powers...Or Not

So, I graduated high school, GO DOGS!, and approached my 18th birthday.

Of course being my 18th birthday my parents wanted to get me something BIG. Although I asked for a new car I didn't get one, to pricy in the long run and the one I had ran OK. However what I didn't expect was a laptop computer. In the long run this set me up for a huge push into computer geekdom and helped me immensely in college. But that's all for later.

So I had my 18th birthday. Got some cool presents from my cool friends, enjoyed some great food, yep lasagna again, and some great cake. Red Velvet if you must know, but no Donatello this time. It came, it went and I retired for the night.

However something AMAZING awaited me in my room. Remember that meteorite? Well for the most part it remained on display in my bedroom. Either on my bedside table, desk, or bookshelf, it was always in the open and never did it glow or do anything strange. Well surprise, surprise, this time things were different.

As I entered my room I noticed a slight red glow. As I usually had a computer on, an old mid-90s desktop, I thought nothing of it. Then I closed the door and the light became as bright as a 100 watt bulb. As I turned towards the source I felt a warm wind overtake me and was amazed at what I saw. The meteorite was floating above its stand and it looked as if the surface was moving. Now most would probably be very worried at this time, not me. For some reason I felt at peace and began approaching the glowing red rock.

As I moved towards it, it also moved towards me and began to get even brighter. Although the color never changed, it remained red throughout, eventually it looked like a miniature of the sun itself, with sunspots, prominences, and flares. Soon it was right in front of me and I reached out for it never once thinking that I could be hurt. Then I touched it.

All at once I was somewhere other than my room and the sun like rock was no longer in front of me. Instead it seemed to be behind me. I turned and saw the sun in all of its glory. I could see it all at once and feel its heat although I did not seem to burning up nor was I without breath. As I gazed at the star I heard a woman speak in a voice as sweet and warm as a summer breeze but as load as a roaring blaze.

"Samson. I am Sol. I am the one that will guide you through the remainder of your life, and a portion of my power will be your own.

"However, I cannot fully assist you as you are. Soon a new change will occur in your life and only than will you be ready for me.

"I will see you soon, my paragon."

Immediately after I heard this I was back in my room with the still glowing rock in front of me. All of a sudden the red color turned to white it glowed so bright that I had to turn away. Once the light died down I looked again to see, what seemed at the time, a strange golden rod about 8 inches long with an large orange jewel topped with a red star at one end and a red cap at the other. Within the jewel was a rotating symbol that seemed to be the astronomical symbol of the sun, a dot within a circle. I was amazed at the time as I had never seen such a thing. Not thinking of possible consequences I reached out for the rod but as soon as the ends of my fingers touched it the whole thing shrank to a small pinprick of bright light which rushed into my chest.

I suddenly felt very hot and felt a strange feeling on my forehead. I've been told by Sol that had I looked in a mirror I would have seen Sol's symbol glowing brightly on my forehead. As it was I was too worried about the heat and was about to strip when everything returned to normal. Well, as normal as things can get after such an event. As my eyes readjusted to the lack of light from the worlds brightest rock I noticed that nothing seemed out-of-place excepting that my meteorite was gone. I checked the time and noticed that less than a minute had passed during my apparent trip to space. I soon sat down and started going over what happened. Losing track of time my mother soon came up to check on me and noticed the missing meteorite. She asked me where it was and in a fit of trying to get some help I explained what happened.

My mother was calm about the whole thing and asked few questions. After I was done explaining she seemed deep in thought for a few minutes before telling me this.

"Samson, ever since I was pregnant with you, and especially after I found that meteorite, I felt that you were destined for great things. It seems that I may have been correct.

"Learn all that you can in your college years and I will continue to pray for your success in your life's devotions. If this Sol says that she will guide you than I'm certain that she will. Remember son, that your father and I will always love you, so you can always come to us for help."

When she stood up to leave we hugged each other and went off to bed. The second largest change in my life had begun, but the biggest was yet to come. But first, I had to survive college. DUN DUN DUN! (Not too much foreshadowing, is it?)

***************************  
Sailor Sol - Chapter 2  
by: MonsterRideOp  
June 13, 2013  
***************************

A/N: You may have noticed that these first chapters are very short. I'm not planning on writing super long chapters as each is a portion of Akio's/Samson's life, but they will get longer. I hope.


	5. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The College Years

So, the summer is half over and I had just gained my powers, sort of. I was done with high school and with nothing better to do was going to head to college in the upcoming fall. Well it was either that or try to find a mediocre job doing menial tasks. Not for me, I had a higher calling.

Of course going to college had always been in the plans. My grades were high enough that most any school would accept me. So during the first few months of my senior high school year I applied at quite a few schools. My dream, at that point, was to go for a science or computer related degree. Preferably both. So I sent my applications to those schools that had good programs for both. Some of these schools were in-state, such as Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, and Michigan Tech, and some were out of state, such as Caltech, MIT, and Purdue.

I received acceptance to many but had yet to make a decision. I thought about my choices through most of my senior year but it wasn't until after my 18th birthday that I made a decision. At the time I had only felt a push to go to one particular school, but now I know that it was Sol helping me to build my future. So I made my final decision, I was going to go to the University of Michigan.

* * *

College, university, a school of higher learning. Four, or five, years of learning from those who really know there stuff. At least that's what usually happens. For me things happened quite differently but I'll get to that a bit later.

I started my college years as most 18 year old freshmen do, by moving into my assigned dorm along with over 9,000 other freshmen. I happened to do this on the worst day possible, the Saturday before classes started. As you can imagine this ended up with the streets and parking lots being packed with students trying to get moved in and parents helping. Not the best decision I ever made.

My dorm room ended up being on the 2nd floor of the East Quadrangle, which I shared with my roommate whose name I never ended up remembering. He was one of those types that always seemed to be in the background and as such we were never anything other than roomies.

And so my freshman year began. I took mostly general education courses, math, languages, etc, but also took one course each from my two possible majors, computer science and astronomy. I had a general interest in both and wanted to see which professor would be the best so I worked my entire schedule around those two classes, each with one of the respective departments full time professors.

The astronomy course was a basic intro to the field kinda course and included some theory and observations. Although I found out that my little telescope was too small to use, there were plenty of others available including the universities own observatory. While the class was fun the professor was really a sight to see. It was plain to see that he enjoyed teaching others about his chosen profession and was not put off by simple questions, dumb or otherwise.

The computer science course ended up being an intro to C++. I found out quickly that computer languages were difficult at best but not so hard that it put me off. I learned and did well, a B+ in the end, but the professor did not seem as happy teaching this as I expected. Compared to the astronomy professor this guy was a real let down.

So come the second semester I choose my major, Astronomy. I also, thanks to the discovery of anime, ended up choosing a minor of Asian Languages and Culture. However to this day I still wonder, how much of this choice was mine and how much was it influence from Sol?

* * *

Life continued on in school. I took my classes, continued to exercise, joined a mixed martial arts club and anime club, and even saw some football and hockey games. While I did not have to I also took a part time job in one of the local dojos assisting the sensei with basic classes. It paid enough so that I never had to worry about spending money.

Being as busy as I was the first year flew by with only the Christmas holidays as a speed bump halfway through. I was learning many new things in Astronomy, Math, and two new languages, Japanese and Mandarin.

After the first year finished I went back home and took the summer off doing some basic work and having a bit of fun. But before I knew it my Sophomore year had begun.

Although I could have gone back to the East Quadrangle this time I had friends and we all decided early on in the winter to get a house together. This turned out to be a good thing in the long run as my housing and food costs dropped tremendously. We had everything that we needed and as most of them were in the same major we had many a good night staring at the stars.

About halfway through the 1st semester my Japanese and Mandarin professors both made a very similar announcement. The chance to spend most of the summer break in the respective country living and learning at a language immersive school. This was huge and I wanted to go to both but had to make a decision quickly as their were only a small number of spots available. I was torn between my enjoyment of anime and a chance to see its birthplace and my new-found love of ancient Chinese culture. Luckily I heard of another opportunity that would be available in my senior year to explore the "back woods" of China with one of the Chinese culture professors. So knowing of this future opportunity I made my choice and decided to go to Japan for an entire summer, well most of one.

Once again the year went by quickly but this time my focus was on the summer trip. I took care of all the preparation by January, passport, visa, and plans to see everything that I possibly could. I took as many side jobs as I could to get extra spending money and ended up having almost $2,000 available by the time we left. I wanted to see it all, Tokyo and its many wards, Mt Fuji, Hokkaido, and especially the Peace Park in Hiroshima. Of course what plan ever survives in real life. Because of the location of the school, in Osaka, and the pace of the classes I had very little time to see everything that I wanted to. But I still had fun and came back one term ahead of the rest of my classmates.

My first two years were over with. I was halfway done and having more fun than I though possible. I had found friends in both of my clubs, my classes, and even through the games that I watched. But at the start of my third year things began to change. Although my classes and "extra-curricular" activities continued as normal, those friends that I made started to actively ignore and even ridicule me. I had no idea why and no one would tell me. I hadn't changed my attitude, I didn't start telling people off, and I definitely wasn't skipping any showers. But STILL I lost friends and acquaintances faster than a tree loses its leaves in the fall. But all was not lost. While I lost those of my own age, I gained the respect, admiration, and even friendship of one of my professors. Specifically it was my Mandarin and Chinese Culture professor, Dr. Wu.

Just like the previous year my language professors once again offered trips to Japan and China. However Dr. Wu took me aside and offered me a trip that usually only a Senior would get a shot at, a trip to inland China to assist an archeological dig as a translator. To make it sound even better he added that it would count as 8 credits, 4 per semester. This was unprecedented in the departments history so I was very much wondering what was going on and I asked Dr. Wu as much. He explained that my excellent grades, enthusiasm in class, and quick learning of the material were all pluses towards his decision to offer a part in the trip.

Now you're probably thinking that I had no reason to go on this trip. And at the time I would agree wholeheartedly. But I soon found out that most of the big decisions that would point me in the proper direction, at least as far as she was concerned, were made by Sol. My parents move to Michigan, my going to UofM, the Astronomy major and minor in Asian cultures/languages. And of course the trip to China. All of these decisions, and more, had a single option that would have gone in the same direction as Sol wanted my life to be. Hold up, don't want to get to far into this tangent. Back to the main story.

So I was offered the trip. And, as if it was meant to be, I took the opportunity that it was and signed up for the trip. Unlike the trip to Japan there was no need for extra money as the expedition would take care of everything, that and there was no such thing as a "free weekend" for this trip. All I had to do this time was get to Beijing.

So the year continued as the others before it. The only big difference was the trip that constantly weighed on my mind. In response to it I studied extra hard with my Mandarin and in the end was good enough to pass at a high school graduate level, at least in a spoken comprehensive manner.

Because of the constant thought of the trip and the near-constant studying the thought of being abandoned by my friends went by the wayside. I was on my own for most everything and by the time Christmas came around I didn't even think of most of my so called friends. Those few that stuck around, about 3 or 4, wished me a Merry Christmas and I headed home for the holidays.

As you noticed I only barely mentioned the holidays before so why now? Mostly it's due to the fact of what happened during the trip but also because it's something I have yet to touch on.

Every year my parents would invite as many relatives as could come. Most of the time it ended up being us, my uncle who sold us the house and his family, my aunt from Detroit, and my uncle that lives near Ann Arbor. The majority of the rest of the family never made it due to being so far away, anywhere from North Carolina to Alaska, but I did sometimes see my uncle from Chicago and my uncle from Pittsburgh. Of course with so many people, the two uncles and aunt from Michigan always brought their families, the dinners were something to behold. We even broke a table one year due to some poor planning in food placement. But this party always occurred either the weekend before or after Christmas Day. So the actual celebration of Christmas, with presents and church, was a quite affair.

This Christmas, before I left for China, was a good one in all respects. My parents got me a few things to take with me, including a book of the most used characters of Simplified Chinese and a guide book for Beijing as I would have a few days to explore.

After Christmas I continued on with my studies and completed my exams with, as expected, an A- average for the year, stupid speech professor had to go and flub my average.

Exactly one week later I was on a 747 on my way to China.

Sailor Sol - Chapter 3

by: MonsterRideOp

August 11, 2013

Authors Notes:

Another chapter down, many to go. Next one should be longer and will include dialog, here's hoping I don't flub it up.

Thanks to those who have added the story, and myself, as favorites and/or follows. Still looking for those elusive reviews.

Also, if anyone wants to beta this, if you think it needs it that is, let me know.


	6. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: A Break From Life

China. After a flight that felt like it took 3 days, but really only about 14 hours, I had arrived. The plane touched down in the late afternoon, which felt odd as I had left at about noon, and I and my fellow passengers all got busy with pulling out our carry-on luggage and to deboard the aircraft.

We all shuffled towards customs where I had to wait another hour before I finally got through. Luckily my answers to the questions given, and possibly my passable Mandarin, got me through quickly, although I know I saw the custom agent frown when he saw the stamp from Japan in my passport. I was able to follow the signs to the luggage carousel, retrieved my bag, and moved on to get a taxi to the hotel the expedition put me in. As soon as I saw the bed I wanted nothing more than to sleep but thought better of it and grabbed a light dinner in the hotel restaurant. Once my head hit the pillow I was out like a light.

To soon I was woken up by a phone call. It was Dr. Wu letting me know that he had arrived. He wanted to meet me to go get breakfast in the lobby. Checking the clock and finding out that it was after 9AM I acquiesced and got ready to go.

We ended up going to a nice little restaurant that was quite unique and yet reminded me of any number of small eateries in the US or Japan. I let Dr. Wu order which turned out to be the best thing to do. I could speak the language well enough but still couldn't quite decipher the written Chinese word.

After a simple breakfast, I was told it was simple, we headed back to the hotel to discuss the plan. It turned out that I had two days to do whatever I wanted before we hoped a short flight to Xining in the Qinghan Provence. From there we would get a ride to the expedition.

While I could have seen whatever I wanted, in reality it turned out to be a tour more-or-less put on by the good doctor. Not one to pass up a good opportunity I followed him to many places including the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, and the Silk Market. We stayed within the city proper at all times, mostly to keep from getting lost would be my guess.

* * *

Our two days of tourism ran out quickly and I was soon back on an airplane headed into inland China. No 747 this time, I was on a smaller Airbus which took about 3 hours to get to Xining. Upon arrival we were met at the curb by a pleasant enough Chinese national by the name of Jing. Jing was a local hired by the expedition to provide transportation in and out of town. We loaded our luggage in the back of the truck and piled into the front. Very quickly, and here I though Michigan drivers were crazy, we were on the expressway heading west. After two hours of apparently crazy driving, although Jing swore up and down that he had never been in an accident, we stopped in the town of Hainan for the night. I thought we could make it all the way but was told that it was at least seven more hours of driving and Dr. Wu wanted to arrive in the daylight. Personally I think Jing's driving was getting to him, not that I could blame him.

We headed out early in the morning, heading southwest at ludicrous speed. After six hours we stopped for lunch, and gas, in Huashixiazhen, a small town/cross roads in the eastern foothills of the Kunlun mountains. We then turned south to make our last two hour push to the dig site.

After the last two hours of racing, I mean driving, we came across a roadside camp in a lush river valley. We pulled in and got out. I took a look around noticing multiple off-road vehicles, Range Rovers mostly, some small tents, some large tent like buildings, and one semi-trailer that looked more like a mobile home. A few locals rushed to our truck and, after some shouted directions from Jing and Dr. Wu, pulled out our luggage and took it to one of the buildings. Dr. Wu had me follow him to the one of the other buildings and as we entered I found myself in what looked like a mish mash with a cafeteria on one side and offices on the other.

We went to one of the offices and was allowed entry. There I met Dr. Chen who was apparently Dr. Wu's friend. I say apparently because as I entered I caught them in the middle of a very enthusiastic greeting. After much chattering, far to fast for me to understand, I was introduced to the leader of the expedition. The two doctors and myself spoke for awhile about what I would be able to do there and finally we were sent out to get some supper before finding our lodgings for the next 2 months.

* * *

The next morning I rose with the sun, as did everyone else, and went through my morning exercises. I had gathered a small audience and everything was going fine until I was asked what style I was using. After informing the onlookers of the three Japanese styles that I used they all laughed at me until one came up and offered to give me some basics in a real martial art, the Kunlun Mountain Fist. Not wanting to seem like I was better than them, mostly due to the fact that there were still two months to go, I accepted and we decided to meet every morning.

After eating the food provided in the morning, which to me was nothing like a proper breakfast, we all piled into the Range Rovers and started heading east to the dig site. We followed a two track trail, kinda reminded me of a logging trail in the UP, for about 10 miles before heading uphill to the dig-site itself. The site was up on a small plateau that seemed a good 100 feet above the valley floor. As we got there I noticed a few more tent buildings that were much smaller than the ones at the main camp but still big enough. I also saw the large marked off area that was the dig-site itself. Already a small portion of it was dug out to about 10 feet deep with ladders allowing access.

Dr. Chen had me shadow him for the first two weeks as we went back and forth between the two camps, digging during the day and taking relics back after about noon to study them in the trailer which I soon found out contained a but crammed lab and storage area. My job during this time was apparently to translate for the lab assistants as well as assist them in any way possible. Luckily we found out early that some of the equipment did not agree with my ministrations, although it was fixable, and I was eventually returned to Dr. Wu.

I shadowed Dr. Wu and ended up living in the communal tent at the dig site itself for the next 2 weeks. During this time I helped out exclusively at the dig-site. Of course my morning lessons got expanded to the afternoons as I found another practitioner of the local arts so at least I had that to look forward to every day. The work during the day and the lessons in morning and evening kept me very busy, so busy that I never thought that I would have a chance to explore the local area. But eventually I did.

* * *

My chance to explore came upon me one morning during my second week at the dig-site camp. My teacher in the Kunlun Mountain Fist had been injured the day before and was bedridden, leaving me with nothing special to do. So I decided to go down into the valley to explore. I made the exploration into a kind of run by heading out at a jogging pace down the valley to the east and than I was going to walk/explore my way back to camp. Everything was going fine when I came upon a point that I just had to stop at.

I came through some tall brush into a field of small ponds or possibly springs. There had to be hundreds within my vision. Some had what looked to be the remains of bamboo poles sticking out of them but otherwise most were of the same size, just large enough to jump into and relax. I was about to due just that when I heard a warning from my left, Dr. Wu had apparently followed me and started to explain about the pools.

He said that they were a part of the history of Mystical China. They were, all together, named Jusenkyo and each had to ability to change someone in different yet drastic ways. He said that although they were known of, they were constantly appearing in different areas of China, almost like they moved from time-to-time. The last time they were seen was in the more mountainous jungle like portion of southeastern China in the late 1980s. He also said that even though they moved, the springs retained a basic layout and always had bamboo poles sticking out of either some or all of them.

After he had passed on the extreme danger of the springs we were about to turn around and head out when we heard a surprised yell from across the springs. We moved over to find out what happened, thinking that perhaps a local had fallen in, when we were suddenly attacked. Two women attacked us from the nearby brush. I noticed both and was able to dodge the one aimed at me. The one that attacked my professor however hit him squarely in the chest, knocking him out.

Once both had recovered, with very graceful landings I might add, I got a better look at them. Both were dressed in what could be garish clothing made of brightly covered silk. They were both tall and lithe with well developed musculature. And although they had bodies that would turn every head in Times Square, it was their hair that had my attention. One had short and vibrant violet hair that looked like a bob cut. The other had long, almost to her cute heart shaped butt, straight hair that was as blue as a bluebird.

Although they were a sight to see, anyone with any brains would see that they were pissed off and ready to attack again. Before they did they started yammering in a language that sounded like Mandarin but was much sharper. I was unable to understand any of it and when I said as much, in Mandarin of course, they took a ready stance. I myself did the same drawing on my Aikido skills. When they saw my stance they smiled dangerously and both reached behind their backs. Violet, on my left, pulled out a sword that looked like a Dao although much larger while Blue, on my right, pulled out two very large Chúi and both took a different stance. I shifted to a counter weapon stance and when I did they both ran in opposite directions before turning towards me. Both ran at me from opposite directions so I did the only thing I could think of, I quickly jumped backwards and flipped my way a few times towards the brush.

Unfortunately I misjudged their speed and they were very quickly in front of me and I was moving as quickly as I possibly could in dodging and blocking, ie diverting, their strikes. During the melee they were moving me closer to the springs although I did not realize it at the time. I was quickly tiring and could not get a strike in to save my life which I realized was exactly what I would have to do. However fate, or most likely Sol, had other plans and I took a direct hit from one of Blue's chúi in the gut which sent me flying over the springs. I had almost lost consciousness when I landed in very cold water and was jolted awake. I started sinking but quickly swam for the surface and emerged greatly changed, although I did not realize it at the time.

As I pulled my self from the spring I noticed my opponents staring at me in a trance with disbelief on their face as if I had grown horns or something like that. I started moving away from the pools towards the brush when they came out of their trance and started around the pools towards where I was going to show up on the edge. I started moving faster to get there before they did and suddenly I was there. Now you have to understand that this was very odd as I know I had at least a good 200 yards to get to the nearest edge of the pools. I stopped and stared at the two girls almost asking them what happened. They however only looked at me in confusion before moving even faster and reaching me in only 5 seconds. The moment they were in range they began to attack again with great vengeance. Although it seemed that I was destined to lose I found that I was able to keep up with them and was avoiding every blow. I was even able to put in a few of my own hits and each time I did a look of pain was seen on my opponents features for less than a moment. I then realized that I could win and started moving even faster eventually knocking both of them out.

Once Blue and Violet were on the ground I stopped and looked around searching for other possible ambushes. Once I had turned around I saw a group of women on the far edge of the pools. They all were of the same basic look with bright clothes and multiple shades of colored hair. However one was very different from the rest. This one was very old and had a long staff in hand. Her hair looked like a purplish silver and she wore what looked like the best, as in quality, clothing of them all. They were all looking at me with wonder and astonishment on their faces as if I had done something special.

Soon the old lady started speaking at me in the same sharp language as my two fallen opponents. When I replied in Mandarin that I did not understand she replied back in Mandarin and began asking why I was here. I gave here the quick explanation that I was simply exploring the area with my teacher when suddenly I was struck from behind and knocked to the ground. As I lay there losing consciousness I noticed Blue standing over me with Violet picking up Dr. Wu. Than everything went black.

Sailor Sol - Chapter 4

by: MonsterRideOp

October 12, 2013

Author Notes:

So it continues. I decided to leave it here with the cliffhanger partially due to the fact that other authors do it(insert evil chuckle here), but mostly because it is a great place to stop. I know I promised dialog but I have yet to find a good place for it. Or for that matter a good way to segue into it. Well even without it I hope that the story is working out.

Still hoping to see some reviews. I know that its good but I want to know what you the reader thinks about it. Especially the fight scene as even though the general abilities of my main character is known, the specifics are not.


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